Received some mail yesterday from the US. On opening it, I find that I received a traffic violation while in Sunshine Florida. Apparently I didn't come to a full stop while making a right turn on a red light. It seems that the intersection was one of those in Sunshine that has "red light violation" cameras, and there were a couple nice photos of our rental car, and a close-up of the licence plate, making a right hand turn. I didn't feel that it showed much, but I also was able to access a video taken at the time. Yes, I didn't come to a complete stop, so I guess I was guilty.
I was a little upset at this, but figured I was clearly wrong, and needed to pay the fine (it also was better to pay it early, rather than late, as the next step was to up the fine to $500 and possible court summons). Well, this is where it began to get interesting.
There were directions for paying online, but when I tried to go online to do it, I only got to the FAQ page, and the bottom showed a balance of $0. No matter what icon I tried on the homepage, I couldn't get to where I could pay online. Then, I read that I could also pay over the phone, but by the time I got to that, the offices were closed back east.
So, today, I got back onto the phone and went through the process of phoning in. After long waits, I finally got through to someone. After explaining who I was and what had happened (not being able to pay online, etc.), I asked about paying the fine. The lady told me that the violation had been cancelled. I wondered why and she said it was because my licence was from out of country. I clarified again (the last thing I need is to be arrested going over the border into the US because of an outstanding traffic violation in Florida) and she told me that I didn't owe anything. I guess good things to come to those who wait.
Bottom line for me is that I feel pretty lucky, I need to look at my driving habits and make sure I come to a stop, and that I feel that Florida is maybe trying to keep good relations with tourists. I think I would go back there for another holiday sometime.
The other mail that came was from Budget Retals saying that I did get the violation, and that they had given my particulars to the City of Sunshine. That part cost me $25 for their handling fees, but I figured that was better than the large fine. I did pay Budget the $25. ;-)
